Texting is a national phenomenon that has affected people of all ages over just the past few years. Even the inventors of texting had no idea of the effect they were created onto the nation. And I must admit that texting is a wonderful thing, but there comes a point where it’s just too much.

It has come increasingly apparent to me that texting at BHS is starting to become a real bothersome issue. Just sitting in any class you will be able to look around and spot a few people not paying attention and checking their phone under their desk. Or my favorite is when people have given up entirely on hiding their phone and simply text over their desk while the teacher is staring right at them.

Texting is a major distraction in the classroom; it is nearly impossible for someone to answer a text while still retaining the information that the teacher is giving them. Even if someone “claims” to be able to text and listen at the same time, they are lying. You might be able to hear the teacher, but in all honesty you won’t know what they’re saying. This is a real problem because most of the time the teacher is trying to teach you something during the 45 minutes of class time.

I also believe that contently texting all the time takes all the emotion out of a conversation. Isn’t the biggest part of a conversation the amount of emotion or enthusiasm you put into it? You can’t put hand motions and facial expressions into a text message (well, unless you put a smiley face motacon, but is that really the same?)

So, here’s a proposition for all you text-a-holics out there: for one week, just ONE week, try not to text at all. Keep the phone in your backpack while you’re in class and call your friends if you really need to talk. Not texting for one week shouldn’t be hard, and if it truly is, then it is very pathetic for our generation that we have become so consumed with texting that we don’t even know how to live without it for a week. So, stop and think about it, do we really want to be known as the generation of kids that are so attached with our phones that we can’t even take them out from under our noses and have a normal face-face conversation?